Open Letter from Tabasco Political Prisoners to Prison Authorities

Public Municipal Prison Tacotalpa, Tabasco
April 23, 2008

Warden of the Tacotalpa, Tabasco, Public Municipal Prison: PRESENT

In the most thoughtful manner we direct this letter to the General Management of Prevention and Social Readjustment of the State of Tabasco.

First let me inform you of the subjects that concern you.

Our innocence and our unjust sentence without having committed a single crime, nor having participated in one. For this reason we declare ourselves on hunger strike for an indefinite period of time. Yes, it's possible that you'll take us out of here dead, because we've had enough of this injustice. Eleven years of asking for justice, but we're never listened to. The response of the government is that we're guilty, that we don't belong to an ethnic or indigenous group. This imprisonment-- the illegal deprivation of our freedom, for a crime you accuse us of committing--is a premeditated kidnapping with malice aforethought.

You don't recognize our rights as indigenous people of Ch'ol ethnicity from Tila, Chiapas. We are 48 hours into our hunger strike and we continue onward.

We would like to recognize national and international civil society, the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center, and the public opinion for publicizing and spreading the word about the illegal deprivation of our freedom and the lack of justice for us. Eleven years, ten months of imprisonment without crime; the hunger strike and our children's and family's plantón outside the prison won't end until we receive freedom with justice.

There not being any other subject to address, this letter is ended at 9:10am.

FREEDOM WITH JUSTICE FOR ALL OF MEXICO'S POLITICAL PRISONERS.

Sincerely,

Ángel Concepción Perez Gutierrez
Francisco Perez Vazquez

For more information about Ángel Concepción Perez Gutierrez and Francisco Perez Vazquez's case, please see Zapatista Prisoners Threaten Hunger Strike in Tabasco